Creating for Magic: The Gathering is unquestionably much more tough than taking part in it, however the identical love for the sport goes into each acts. This has the potential to place the designers in a tough place – on the one hand, you could have a mechanical concept that comes straight out of your ardour for the franchise, however however, you must be certain that it really works, guaranteeing clean gameplay to your clients. At PAX Unplugged 2024, we heard from designer Gavin Verhey, who shared with us a few of his fondest concepts for mechanics which might be merely, nicely, not within the playing cards.
The subject got here up in the course of the Q&A portion of the Magic: The Gathering Foundations Power Hour on Saturday, December 7. Verhey, who’s the workforce lead on the upcoming Universes Beyond set that can make the most of characters and lore from the Final Fantasy recreation franchise, was requested about mechanics he’d like to see within the recreation that have not been launched but. Verhey was fast to reply however, sadly, was additionally fast to make clear that we might in all probability by no means see these mechanics within the recreation.
“I’ll inform you about three bizarre mechanics that I made that can by no means see the sunshine of day,” Verhey mentioned with amusing, “These are off the highest of my head, however I feel I’m positive I might consider a whole bunch extra.”
“The first one is ‘Gunk.’ Gunk are these playing cards which might be about shuffling your opponent’s library, and don’t have any means however biking, so that they ‘Gunk up’ [your opponent’s] hand. It is logistically unfeasible for any form of Magic, however I actually benefit from the playing cards.”
“At one level in Ixalan,” Verhey continued, “we have been attempting to determine a mechanic for pirates, one that might make you’re feeling such as you’re discovering treasure. I had the concept of Booster Tutor the mechanic the place you’d open up a booster pack, since you’re discovering your treasure within the booster pack! That’s unfeasible for a bunch of different causes.”
Though Verhey didn’t increase on what these causes have been, we really feel comfy taking his phrase on it, contemplating how lengthy he is been engaged on the sport. This left him with only one extra doomed mechanic to speak about, for which Verhey spent a while mulling over attainable solutions. Finally, he got here up with one.
“The third one that can speak about,” Verhey concludes, “I’m a giant fan of facet decks, so I’ve requested, ‘What is one thing that I can convey to the desk together with the remainder of your stuff occurring?’ Something that was extra competitive-focused than, say, contraptions or points of interest or something like that, which I did not actually check in any respect.”
(To make clear, facet decks, or sideboards, do exist already in Magic: The Gathering – we presume Verhey is referencing playing cards particularly made for sideboards, which don’t presently exist.)
Before he wrapped up his reply, Verhey did have yet another mechanic he’d like to see within the recreation, although it is in all probability the least doubtless of all of them, attributable to the truth that
“Triple face playing cards,” was the concept, Verhey mentioned. “You’ve acquired to interrupt the legal guidelines of physics, however it will be cool if we might try this.”
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